Steel City Interview

SHFCHZ is a crew from Sheffield, United Kingdom. The members of the crew are Josh O’Carroll, Luke Frost, Ollie Fletcher, Simon Wilman, Alex Dobb, and Joe Allen. They have been riding together for a year now, making short montages on their youtube channel. They decided it was time to do something more, so they made a full length. Sheffield is one of the largest suppliers for steel to the world, so they named the full length Steel City. This is an interview with Joe Allen, Alex Dobb, and Josh O’Carroll. Steel City premieres on SR Sunday, August 24th!

Are you guys the only people that ride in Sheffield or is there a large scooter scene?

There are quite a lot of dudes that ride in Sheffield. Quite a few little crews dotting about doing their own kind of thing, making their own videos and some of them are getting heaps good, sick to see people pushing the sport in an area of the UK that seems quite small for it. So whenever were at a skatepark or something its pretty often other people we know rock up then we end up chilling in a bigger group. Although, sadly most of the riders in our area are the children that are still stuck with the MGP and kick less rewind obsessions. Each to their own, whatever they enjoy. We just prefer to chill, film and stay as far away from kick less rewinds as possible.– Joe Allen

How did all of you meet?

Like 4 years ago me and Alex had a long time dislike of each other, when we didn’t ride together of course. We’d bump into each other at parks and have immediate beef, so weird. Anyway, then I met Josh at a park in Sheffield and filmed him for a while. Josh was always mates with Alex, so then eventually me and Alex just started riding together just over a year ago and it was like there was never any weird stuff. Ivʼe known Simon since I was a little kid and we started riding at the same time, 4 years ago. Met Ollie and Luke about 3 years ago at parks in Sheffield and we rode/filmed together every weekend from the first days we met. Then the rest of the crew, Michael Mappoura, Yiano Mappoura, Josh Platts, Ethian Boler, Joe Thorpe, Morgan Cox, and Josh Donohue came together 2 years ago.– Joe Allen

Are all of you unsponsored?

Josh was sponsored a couple years ago on and off by LGPro and Vertx, also Classic Sports who hooked him up with parts for a few months. Luke was with Classic for about a year too, always supporting him. All the rest of the crew have never been sponsored, but none of us are really doing it to become sponsored, having fun is the main thing in our opinion. But don’t get me wrong, having a sponsor would be sweet, always keen to rep a legit brand!– Joe Allen

Do you have any influences when you are filming and editing?

I really dig Inaki Gil’s pieces of work, mainly with the Alchemyst dudes over in Barcelona. Everyone needs to check them out! Inaki’s style of filming seems so different to everyone else’s in the industry, good stuff. Another group of people I look up to for filmmaking are any of the dudes that film and edit the Friendly and Tilt videos, both have such chilled out vibes that flow so well with the riding! And how could I forget the Satori videos, those are one of a kind!– Joe Allen

Is Sheffield a large area that has lots of spots?

I donʼt see Sheffield as being an overly large area, but I know there are loads of undiscovered spots that we havenʼt found yet. The centreʼs pretty small and most spots seem to have skate stoppers or some kind of device which renders most unrideable, but the ones that have been left untampered are usually fun as hell! So we usually have to venture into the inner city areas around flats and factories where security is much less strict and riding is more possible. Although saying that, myself, Ollie, and Luke all got our ender clip in Sheffield city centre without any problems! Being one of the largest cities in the UK, Sheffield definitely has a lot to offer, itʼs just the matter of looking in the right places. Sheffield is quite undeveloped compared to other more modern cities so the spots aren’t as perfect and smooth as other places.– Josh O’Carrol

Are there any other cities in the UK you would like to ride in?

We have been talking about going to Milton keynes and Leicester, they both look like they have endless spots and they also have a reasonable scooter scene so I think we will try and go there soon! We have also been wanting to go to London, there are loads of famous spots down there which we all really want to ride and it would also be pretty cool to ride around the capital for a few days.– Alex Dobb

Do you have any plans for the crew after this video?

MA few days after this video drops me, Alex, and Joe are flying to Barcelona for five days to ride. Anyone who’s up to chill and show us around hit us up! Weʼre all super hyped for it and I canʼt wait to get some footage of the trip for our channel. After that I imagine weʼll just continue to try and fit riding in and around school and education, and of course continue to get footage out for everyone to enjoy.– Josh O’Carrol

SHFCHZ crew would like to thank Scooter Resource for doing all this for us, we’re really privileged to be the first people to have a video on the channel from the UK! Hope you all enjoy the video as much as we did working on it, let us know what you think! Look forward to perhaps working with the Scooter Resource dudes again the near future, take it easy guys.– Joe Allen